Ion Barbu (born 14 May 1977 in

Scornicești Scornicești () is a town in Olt County, Romania, with a population of 10,795. The town administers 13 villages (Bălțați, Bircii, Chițeasca, Constantinești, Jitaru, Mărgineni-Slobozia, Mihăilești-Popești, Mogoșești, Negreni, Piscani, R ...

Olt County Olt County () is a county (județ) of Romania on the border with Bulgaria, in the Historical regions of Romania, historical regions of Oltenia and Muntenia (the regions are separated by the Olt River, Olt river). The capital city is Slatina, Roma ...

) is a

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

n former professional footballer and currently a manager.

Playing career

Ion Barbu was born on 14 May 1977 in

, starting to play football at age 9, under the guidance of his father at Recolta Chițeasca. Afterwards, aged 14 he went to play senior level football for Olt Scornicești in Divizia B, then moving to

Drobeta-Turnu Severin Drobeta-Turnu Severin (), colloquially Severin, is a city in Mehedinți County, Oltenia, Romania, on the northern bank of the Danube, close to the Iron Gates. It is one of six Romanian county seats List of cities and towns on the river Danube, lyin ...

in the same league. He went for a while at Universitatea Craiova's

satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...

, Constructorul where he worked with coaches Nicolae Tilihoi and Silviu Lung. He arrived in 1999 at Politehnica Iași in Divizia B, then in the middle of the season he left the team to sign with Farul Constanța where on 4 March 2000 he made his

Divizia A Liga I (; ''First League''), also spelled as Liga 1 and officially known as SuperLiga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Romania and the highest level of the Romanian football league system. Contested by 1 ...

debut in a 1–1 with Astra Ploiești. At the end of his first top-flight season, Farul relegated to Divizia B but Barbu stayed with the club, helping it promote back to the first league after one year. In the following years he played constantly for the club, becoming its captain, a highlight being the reaching of the 2005 Cupa României final where coach

Petre Grigoraș Petre Grigoraș (born 15 November 1964, in Poduri, Bacău County, Bacău) is a Romanian football (soccer), football manager and former player. He is known as "Petre Grigoraș, cel mai tare din oraș" ("Petre Grigoraș, best man of the city"), as ...

used him all the minutes in the 1–0 loss with Dinamo București. In 2006 he started to play in European competitions, making four appearances in the

Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from , "between" and , " betting pool"),Most precisely, from (football pool); cf. originally called the International Football Cup, was a summer football competition between European clubs. The competition was discon ...

, helping the club eliminate

FK Pobeda FK Pobeda () was a football club based in the city of Prilep, North Macedonia. History The club was founded in 1941 as Goce Delčev and renamed in 1950 to FK Pobeda. FK Pobeda has been a winner of Macedonian First League for two times (eight ti ...

and

Lokomotiv Plovdiv PFC Lokomotiv Plovdiv (), commonly known as Loko Plovdiv, is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Plovdiv. Lokomotiv's home ground is the Stadion Lokomotiv (Plovdiv), Lokomotiv Stadium which is situated in Lauta Park and ha ...

in the first two rounds, being eliminated in the third one by

Auxerre Auxerre ( , , Burgundian language (Oïl), Burgundian: ''Auchoirre'') is the capital (Prefectures in France, prefecture) of the Yonne Departments of France, department and the fourth-largest city in the Burgundy historical region southeast of Par ...

against whom he did not play. In 2009, Farul relegated once again to the second league where he played for three more seasons. Ion Barbu has a total of 189 matches with nine goals scored in Divizia A, all of them for Farul and during an interview he gave for '' Prosport'', Barbu said that the most important goal he scored in his career was against international goalkeeper Florin Prunea in a 2–1 win over FCM Bacău which helped Farul earn important points in the fight to avoid relegation.

Managerial career

Ion Barbu started working as head coach at Farul Constanța in 2012, while the club was in

Liga II The Liga 2, most commonly spelled as Liga II, is the second level of the Romanian football league system. The league changed its name from Divizia B just before the start of the 2006–07 Liga II, 2006–07 football season. It is currently Sponso ...

. In the 2016–17 Liga IV season he was player-coach at Farul, helping it promote to

Liga III The Liga 3, most often spelled as Liga III, is the third level of the Romanian football league system. It was founded in 1936 and was called Divizia C until 2006. An exception was the seasons 1992–93 to 1996–97, in which the league was call ...

. He worked only at Farul, when the team was in the lower leagues, having several spells as head coach or assistant.

Honours

Player

Farul Constanța *

Cupa României The Cupa României () is a Association football, football cup competition for List of football clubs in Romania, Romanian teams which has been held annually since 1933–34 Cupa României, 1933–34, except during World War II. It is the Romania ...

runner-up: 2004–05 *

Liga IV Liga IV is the fourth level of the Romanian football league system and is run in all 41 counties and in the Municipality of Bucharest. It was known as the Regional Championship, County Championship, Divizia C – County Phase and Divizia D. Its ...

: 2016–17

Manager

Farul Constanța *

: 2016–17

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Barbu, Ion 1977 births Living people People from Scornicești Romanian men's footballers Liga I players Liga II players FC Olt Scornicești players FC Drobeta-Turnu Severin players FCV Farul Constanța players FC Politehnica Iași (1945) players Men's association football defenders Romanian football managers FCV Farul Constanța managers Footballers from Olt County